Yogyakarta, April 15th 2021 – Fisipol UGM held The Daniel Dhakidae’s Thought Discussion Series to commemorate one of the national figures and alumni of the Fisipol UGM, Daniel Dhakidae. This discussion series consisted of three discussions, one of them discussed about Media, Capital, and Democracy on Wednesday (14/6) at 03.30 p.m. to 05.30 p.m. on Zoom Meeting. This discussion talked about the Daniel Dhakidae’s thought about how to understand journalism and news industry by understanding the state and the capital first, as written on The State, the Rise of Capital, and the Fall of Political Journalism: Political Economy of Indonesian News Industry which achieved The Lauriston Sharp Prize from the Southeast Asian Program Cornell University. The speaker of this discussion was Kuskridho Ambardi, MA, Ph.D., as the lecturer of Fisipol UGM, Evi Mariani as the journalist, and Harry Wibowo the executive director of Jurnal Sosial dan Ekonomi Prisma.
According to Eva Mariani, as the second speaker, Daniel Dhakidae’s writings inspired her to think about freedom of press and journalism, which were backed and supported by political and economic control. In her session said that, “Journalists want to be independent, but they are controlled by the political and economic power, either it is the Old Order, New Order, or Reformation. There is always a way to control the journalists through the capital.” Evi also talked about the partisanship and professionalism of journalists.
The discussion was followed by an explanation by Harry Wibowo as the executive editor of the Jurnal Sosial dan Ekonomi Prisma. Daniel Dhakidae himself is the Chief Editor and General Leader of the Jurnal Prisma. In his session, Harry discussed the editorial writing in the Prisma journal which was written by Daniel Dhakidae which discussed a lot about democracy. Harry said that Daniel Dhakidae was active in the student press when he was in college. “They do not jump into journalism or become lecturers, but have started a magazine containing scientific journals like Prisma,” Harry said. This event can be watched again on the Fisipol UGM YouTube channel.